Respondents who
think abortion should be legal in all cases increased two percentage points to
23% from 2014 to 2018, while those who feel it should be legal in most cases
dropped three points to 31% over the same time period.

Those who feel abortion should be illegal in most cases remained the same (25%), while those who said it should be illegal in all cases declined one point to 15% from 2014 to 2018.

“Although a few
states such as Alabama and Missouri have recently passed laws that – should
they survive court challenges – would make abortion illegal with virtually no
exceptions, there is no state in which more than one-quarter of residents say
abortion should be illegal in all cases,” the report said.

“States with
the largest proportion of residents who say abortion should be illegal in all
cases include Louisiana (23%), Mississippi (22%), Arkansas (21%), Nebraska
(21%), Tennessee (21%), Kentucky (20%) and North Dakota (20%). In all other
states … fewer than one in five think abortion should be illegal in all cases.”

Republican
support for legal abortion in all cases dropped five points to 34%, while independent
support remained the same (55%) and Democratic support rose three points to
70%.

Responses varied
significantly by religious tradition, with Jehovah’s Witnesses (68%), Mormons
(66%) and white evangelical Protestants (65%) being most likely to say abortion
should be illegal in most or all instances.

The most likely
respondents to say abortion should be legal in all or most instances were
Unitarian Universalists (83%), New Age (73%) and religiously unaffiliated
(72%).

Among Christian
respondents, black non-evangelical Protestants were most likely to support
abortion being legal in most or all instances (67%), followed by white mainline
Protestants (59%).

In the past
five years, Hispanic Catholics were most likely to have become more opposed to
abortion (21% of respondents reported this change), followed by Jehovah’s
Witnesses (17%) and Hispanic Catholics (16%).

Buddhists and
New Age respondents were most likely to say they are more supportive of
abortion than they were five years ago (18% for both groups reported this
shift), followed by Hindus (16%) and Unitarian Universalists and black
Protestants (both at 15%).

“Americans who
know someone who has had an abortion are much more likely than people who have
had no such experience to think abortion should be legal in most or all cases,”
the report said.

“Three in four
(75%) Americans who report having had an abortion think it should be legal in
most or all cases, while 60% of people who know a friend, family member or
someone else who has had an abortion agree.”